Jeremiah 13

• 1. This is what the LORD said to me: "Go and buy a linen belt and put it around your waist, but do not wash it."
• 2. So I bought the belt as the LORD directed me and put it around my waist.
• 3. Then the LORD gave me another message:
• 4. "Take the linen belt you are wearing, and go to the Euphrates River. Hide it there in a hole in the rocks."
• 5. So I went and hid it at the Euphrates as the LORD had instructed me.
• 6. A long time afterward, the LORD said to me, "Go back to the Euphrates and get the linen belt that I told you to hide there."
• 7. So I went to the Euphrates and dug it out of the hole where I had hidden it. But now it was mildewed and falling apart. The belt was useless.
• 8. Then I received this message from the LORD:
• 9. "The LORD says: This illustrates how I will rot away the pride of Judah and Jerusalem.
• 10. These wicked people refuse to listen to me. They stubbornly follow their own desires and worship idols. Therefore, they will become like this linen belt--good for nothing!
• 11. As a belt clings to a person's waist, so I created Judah and Israel to cling to me," says the LORD. "They were to be my people, my pride, my glory--an honor to my name. But they would not listen to me.
• 12. "So tell them, `The LORD, the God of Israel, says: All your wineskins will be full of wine.' And they will reply, `Of course, you don't need to tell us how prosperous we will be!'
• 13. Then tell them, `No, this is what the LORD means: I will make everyone in this land so confused that they will seem drunk--from the king sitting on David's throne and from the priests and the prophets, right on down to the common people.
• 14. I will smash them one against the other, even parents against children, says the LORD. I will not let my pity or mercy or compassion keep me from destroying them.'"
• 15. Listen! Do not be proud, for the LORD has spoken.
• 16. Give glory to the LORD your God before it is too late. Acknowledge him before he brings darkness upon you, causing you to stumble and fall on the dark mountains. For then, when you look for light, you will find only terrible darkness.
• 17. And if you still refuse to listen, I will weep alone because of your pride. My eyes will overflow with tears because the LORD's flock will be led away into exile.
• 18. Say to the king and his mother, "Come down from your thrones and sit in the dust, for your glorious crowns will soon be snatched from your heads."
• 19. The towns of the Negev will close their gates, and no one will be able to open them. The people of Judah will be taken away as captives. They will all be carried into exile.
• 20. See the armies marching down from the north! Where is your flock--your beautiful flock--that he gave you to care for?
• 21. How will you feel when the LORD sets your foreign allies over you as rulers? You will writhe in pain like a woman giving birth!
• 22. You may ask yourself, "Why is all this happening to me?" It is because of your many sins! That is why you have been raped and destroyed by invading armies.
• 23. Can an Ethiopian change the color of his skin? Can a leopard take away its spots? Neither can you start doing good, for you always do evil.
• 24. "I will scatter you, just as chaff is scattered by the winds blowing in from the desert.
• 25. This is your allotment, that which is due you," says the LORD. "I have measured it out especially for you, because you have forgotten me and put your trust in false gods.
• 26. I myself will expose you to shame.
• 27. I am keenly aware of your adultery and lust, and your abominable idol worship out in the fields and on the hills. Your destruction is sure, Jerusalem! How long will it be before you are pure?"

Jeremiah 14

• 1. This message came to Jeremiah from the LORD, explaining why he was holding back the rain:
• 2. "Judah wilts; her businesses have ground to a halt. All the people sit on the ground in mourning, and a great cry rises from Jerusalem.
• 3. The nobles send servants to get water, but all the wells are dry. The servants return with empty pitchers, confused and desperate, covering their heads in grief.
• 4. The ground is parched and cracked for lack of rain. The farmers are afraid; they, too, cover their heads.
• 5. The deer abandons her newborn fawn because there is no grass.
• 6. The wild donkeys stand on the bare hills panting like thirsty jackals. They strain their eyes looking for grass to eat, but there is none to be found."
• 7. The people say, "LORD, our wickedness has caught up with us. We have sinned against you. So please, help us for the sake of your own reputation.
• 8. O Hope of Israel, our Savior in times of trouble! Why are you like a stranger to us? Why are you like someone passing through the land, stopping only for the night?
• 9. Are you also confused? Are you helpless to save us? You are right here among us, LORD. We are known as your people. Please don't abandon us now!"
• 10. So the LORD replies to his people, "You love to wander far from me and do not follow in my paths. Now I will no longer accept you as my people. I will remember all your wickedness and will punish you for your sins."
• 11. Then the LORD said to me, "Do not pray for these people anymore.
• 12. When they fast in my presence, I will pay no attention. When they present their burnt offerings and grain offerings to me, I will not accept them. In return, I will give them only war, famine, and disease."
• 13. Then I said, "O Sovereign LORD, their prophets are telling them, `All is well--no war or famine will come. The LORD will surely send you peace.'"
• 14. Then the LORD said, "These prophets are telling lies in my name. I did not send them or tell them to speak. I did not give them any messages. They prophesy of visions and revelations they have never seen or heard. They speak foolishness made up in their own lying hearts.
• 15. Therefore, says the LORD, I will punish these lying prophets, for they have spoken in my name even though I never sent them. They say that no war or famine will come, but they themselves will die by war and famine!
• 16. As for the people to whom they prophesy--their bodies will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem, victims of famine and war. There will be no one left to bury them. Husbands, wives, sons, and daughters--all will be gone. For I will pour out their own wickedness on them.
• 17. "Now, Jeremiah, say this to them: `Night and day my eyes overflow with tears. I cannot stop weeping, for my virgin daughter--my precious people--has been run through with a sword and lies mortally wounded on the ground.
• 18. If I go out into the fields, I see the bodies of people slaughtered by the enemy. If I walk the city streets, there I see people who have died of starvation. The prophets and priests continue with their work, but they do not know what they are doing.'"
• 19. LORD, have you completely rejected Judah? Do you really hate Jerusalem? Why have you wounded us past all hope of healing? We hoped for peace, but no peace came. We hoped for a time of healing but found only terror.
• 20. LORD, we confess our wickedness and that of our ancestors, too. We all have sinned against you.
• 21. For the sake of your own name, LORD, do not abandon us. Do not disgrace yourself and the throne of your glory. Do not break your covenant with us. Please don't forget us!
• 22. Can any of the foreign gods send us rain? Does it fall from the sky by itself? No, it comes from you, the LORD our God! Only you can do such things. So we will wait for you to help us.

Jeremiah 15

• 1. Then the LORD said to me, "Even if Moses and Samuel stood before me pleading for these people, I wouldn't help them. Away with them! Get them out of my sight!
• 2. And if they say to you, `But where can we go?' tell them, `This is what the LORD says: Those who are destined for death, to death; those who are destined for war, to war; those who are destined for famine, to famine; those who are destined for captivity, to captivity.'
• 3. "I will send four kinds of destroyers against them," says the LORD. "I will send the sword to kill, the dogs to drag away, the vultures to devour, and the wild animals to finish up what is left.
• 4. Because of the wicked things Manasseh son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, did in Jerusalem, I will make my people an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.
• 5. "Who will feel sorry for you, Jerusalem? Who will weep for you? Who will even bother to ask how you are?
• 6. You have forsaken me and turned your back on me," says the LORD. "Therefore, I will raise my clenched fists to destroy you. I am tired of always giving you another chance.
• 7. I will winnow you like grain at the gates of your cities and take away everything you hold dear. I will destroy my own people, because they refuse to turn back to me from all their evil ways.
• 8. "There will be more widows than the grains of sand along the seashore. At noontime I will bring a destroyer against the mothers of young men. I will cause anguish and terror to come upon them suddenly.
• 9. The mother of seven grows faint and gasps for breath; her sun has gone down while it is yet day. She sits childless now, disgraced and humiliated. And those who are left, I will hand over to the enemy to be killed," says the LORD.
• 10. Then I said, "What sadness is mine, my mother. Oh, that I had died at birth! I am hated everywhere I go. I am neither a lender who has threatened to foreclose nor a borrower who refuses to pay--yet they all curse me."
• 11. The LORD replied, "All will be well with you, Jeremiah. Your enemies will ask you to plead on their behalf in times of trouble and distress.
• 12. Can a man break a bar of iron from the north, or a bar of bronze?
• 13. Because of all my people's sins against me, I will hand over their wealth and treasures as plunder to the enemy.
• 14. I will tell their enemies to take them as captives to a foreign land. For my anger blazes forth like fire, and it will consume them."
• 15. Then I said, "LORD, you know I am suffering for your sake. Punish my persecutors! Don't let them kill me! Be merciful to me and give them what they deserve!
• 16. Your words are what sustain me. They bring me great joy and are my heart's delight, for I bear your name, O LORD God Almighty.
• 17. I never joined the people in their merry feasts. I sat alone because your hand was on me. I burst with indignation at their sins.
• 18. Why then does my suffering continue? Why is my wound so incurable? Your help seems as uncertain as a seasonal brook. It is like a spring that has gone dry."
• 19. The LORD replied, "If you return to me, I will restore you so you can continue to serve me. If you speak words that are worthy, you will be my spokesman. You are to influence them; do not let them influence you!
• 20. They will fight against you like an attacking army, but I will make you as secure as a fortified wall. They will not conquer you, for I will protect and deliver you. I, the LORD, have spoken!
• 21. Yes, I will certainly keep you safe from these wicked men. I will rescue you from their cruel hands."

New Living Translation: 263 of 324 days.